Skip to main content
Rules for YouPlanning, made clearerMenu

England · National documents

National planning for England

Find the national policy, guidance and standards behind a planning question. Check the source and its scope, then connect it to your council’s policies and the reasons in your refusal notice.

AI-generated summaries of the linked official sources; not editorially reviewed. Sources and limits

Documents in the register
88
Practice guidance topics
58
Document groups
5
Source check
8 September 2026

Start with the policy summary

Read the national context for common planning questions, with references to the relevant documents and sections. Each document profile explains its purpose, applicability and recorded source status.

Read the national policy summary

National documents

88 of 88 documents

National Planning Policy Framework 1

Planning practice guidance 58

Design, housing and drainage standards 5

Other national planning policy 3

Building regulations: Approved Documents 21

Sources, scope and limits

England’s published national planning framework, the official Planning Practice Guidance collection’s 59 publicly listed topic pages (including one relocation notice), supporting national design and housing standards, additional national planning policies, and the Approved Documents for building regulations.

You are responsible for checking anything listed here.

The summaries were generated with AI from the linked official sources and have not been editorially reviewed. Open the cited passage to check the wording, exceptions and version before using an explanation in your own research.

National policy, planning guidance, technical standards and Building Regulations guidance are labelled separately. Read each document’s applicability and limitations; inclusion here does not establish that it applies to a particular site or proposal.

The source-check date records the check used for this register. It is not a guarantee that a document has remained unchanged. This section supports research and does not provide professional advice.

  • This is a defined official-source collection, not a claim to contain every law, ministerial statement or specialist standard relevant to every development.
  • The official Planning Practice Guidance collection retains older introductory wording. The current NPPF publication page and each individual source were checked separately.
  • The collection API references three additional topic identifiers without public document links. The inventory includes all 59 topic pages publicly listed by GOV.UK.
  • Building regulations material is a separate system from planning policy. Some published editions and collated amendments apply only to particular dates and transitional cases.
  • Consultation drafts, devolved-nation guidance, infrastructure National Policy Statements and external commercial standards are outside this collection.
  • A source check records what the official publisher supplied on that date; it is not human editorial acceptance or a guarantee of continued currency.
  • Rural housing is a relocation notice: the substantive guidance is now in Housing needs of different groups. It is retained in the inventory but omitted as a separate current document.
Report an error or changed source

Put the national source in your local context

Start with the exact refusal reason. Note the policy and paragraph it cites, then check your authority’s policy summary and the facts discussed in relevant appeal decisions. Each appeal turns on its own facts and does not predict another outcome.

Find your planning authorityCompare appeal evidence